Wednesday, 12 August 2015

Seeking Adonis On the Ancient Chalk Hills Of Hampshire

Not the archetypal Handsome Youth, nor even the God who presided over Natural Cycles as the annually renewed God Of Vegetation (although that is perhaps closer). No, the one I was after is Blue (or Brown if you're a girl Adonis), rather small, has wings and lives high up on The Chalk.

Uncle Bulgaria (who makes regular appearances here under the Blog Name of The Butterfly Whisperer, but is also occasionally known as Uncle Dave and now as Uncle Bulgaria after M corrupted Uncle Dave to a Womble-Themed term of endearment - I'm afraid our house is that Bonkers, and Dave doesn't even know yet, although of course he will do if he reads this) and I spent the morning searching for these most beautiful butterflies beneath cloudy skies in gusty wind conditions up on Broughton Down.

Not ideal Flutter Weather and the male Adonis stayed firmly away with ne'er a flash of their extraordinary blue to be seen. However, Uncle B thought he might have glimpsed a female Adonis and when I got home and sorted through the pictures I think he might be right. It's all to do with under wing spots and broken or unbroken wing fringes. My head is hurting after picking through all the pics with flutter book in one hand and a chocolate biscuit to steady the nerves in the other trying to label everything correctly.

If I am right (and I'll happily be corrected) this is the Lady In Question, and the sole representative of the species on show today....

There were plenty of other small flying people about, which was rather a treat. Here they are for your delectation, starting with the Common Blues (blue for a boy, brown for a girl, although as you'll see, one of the Mrs CBs is blue/brown, a variation known as mariscolore which is very common in Scotland and Ireland apparently...).

Next up the Brown Argus Brigade (both sexes are brown, the girls have orange dots all the way up their upper wings, the boys' peter out before that...)

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Then the Chalkhills (boys are blue, girls brown, with both sexes having a broken white fringe on the under wing that distinguishes them from Common Blues whose fringe is unbroken, but makes them similar to Adonis, from whom they can be told by the colour of the pale crescents under the spots on the upper side of the wing, which are blue in Adonis and white in Chalkhill. Are you exhausted yet? I know I am....)

D'you mind if we get off Blue butterflies now? Before my head explodes.

First up, the Very Rare (although you wouldn't have thought it today- we were tripping over them) Silver Spotted Skipper. Would you believe that last summer I didn't get a single picture of one of these? This summer, I have about thirty :o)

I think the top pic is a boy and the second one a girl as they seem to be darker. SS Skips are Chalk Downland flutters and as such are only found in a handful of sites here in the UK, which mark the Northernmost reach of their range and we are extremely fortunate to have such a strong colony nearby.

I also found a Small Skipper, who was very obliging about posing for pics, even though I told him he was too big for his second flower :o) They are distinguished from the very similar Essex Skip by the lack of black on the underside of the antennae.

There were five rather ancient, faded and doddery Dark Green Fritillaries fluttering about in the wind...

As well as several Whites (this one Large)...

And a couple of Small Heaths (widespread but rare, as their grassland homes are quickly destroyed by aggressive management)...

We looked in vain for Clouded Yellows but found none. I am beginning to wonder whether I will ever get a photograph of that species :o)

I'll leave you with some shots taken around the Down and wish you all a pleasant afternoon.

I need a proper guide or release a couple from one of the bookcases! You must have oodles of fun with your very own Uncle Bulgaria, I'm trying hard to spot a Ringlet, too many Meadow Browns and a pesky Jack Russell get in the way xx

Lots of little teeny brown moth things in the garden today. Beigy cream with quite a triangular wing. Might not even be a flutter! But one landed on me and wasn't even bothered by a flick of my knitting needle!

Wonderful photos again, they really are. I love that fluffy intense blue of the chalkhills, gorgeous. There have been lots of flutters at the allotment site lately. I saw something today, only the underside of closed wings, a big butterfly, very dark - purple or purplish brown or almost black. No idea what it was, and it vanished before I could see any more. I shall look out for it again though. The biggest boy saw a green woodpecker down there earlier this week which he was thrilled about. Nice to see the Wombles are alive and well with you. I like to call out, "Coo-eee, Wum-bulls" from time to time, a la Madame Cholais. They're just about my favourites ever. CJ xx

I love the fluff too- it isn't obvious to the naked eye so it's always pleasing to see it in a picture.Your large, dark flutter was probably a Peacock- they are virtually black with wings closed. It will probably be back so is worth keeping eyes peeled.I LOVED the wombles when I was little. We had a cat called Womble much later in their honour and a pony called Madame Cholet :o) xx

Thanks for the ID, I think you're right, I've Googled "peacock butterfly underside" and that's what I saw. We went to Bristol Museum today and I got to see specimens of lots of our native flutters. Also exotic things like Apricot Sulphurs, fantastic, although it's not good that so many were killed for collections. Thanks too for the correct spelling of Cholet, I've made a mental note! CJ xx

I tell myself that if they hadn't collected and pinned specimens in the past there are some (now extinct) we'd have no record of at all. It's not something I'm comfortable with either, but I can see the value to science. The only reason I know the Cholet spelling is because I wrote it out countless times as a child on numerous pony show schedule entries! Ours was a small, fat, round shetland x welsh pony with springs under her hooves and bags of attitude xx

Lovely day on chalk streams today on Avon and the Wylie. Funnily enough when I went to school in Salisbury the dormitories were all named after local chalk streams so I can truths claim to have slept in both the Avon and Wylie as well. Countryside looking particularly fine, partridges were particularly stupid and the trout were far cleverer than me. Lovely day out from London, looking forward to being twice the husband for half the money, what a bargain for the other half!

About Me

A sometimes humorous record of my rural life in Hampshire, England, with a particular bias towards wildlife, the countryside and running and the odd dog, husband and child-related moment thrown in for good measure.